Water Sunday

If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, or you just happened to read my post on Monday, then you know that social justice is very important to me. Although my current situation in life prevents me from being as involved in nonprofit work as I’d like, any time I can use my blogging platform to shine a light on folks doing incredible justice work anywhere in the world, it’s something I’m more than happy to do.

Today, I’m excited to introduce you to my new friends over at Water Missions International. They’re a nonprofit Christian engineering organization providing sustainable safe water and sanitation solutions for people in developing countries and disaster areas. Their team is guest posting on the blog today to tell you a Water Sunday, an important annual event you’ll definitely want to get your church involved with. After you get signed up for Water Sunday, you can keep up with Water Missions International on Facebook here and follow them on Twitter here.

Imagine if your church could be part of stopping one of our world’s greatest killers that takes the life of more people each day than war, natural disasters, AIDS, or hunger

The global water crisis is a silent killer. Half of the world’s hospital beds are full of people sick from water related illness. Diarrheal illness is the second leading cause of child death worldwide. While you rarely hear about it on the news, the crisis is enormous and urgent, causing the death of one child under the age of five every twenty-one seconds.

On April 26th, your church can transform lives around the world through safe and Living Water by participating in Water Sunday. Water Sunday is one Sunday your church, youthgroup or small group sets aside to focus on the global water crisis through a variety of activities, studies or sermons that bring you into solidarity with people all over the world who lack safe water. We have developed specialized Water Sunday resources that are totally done for you and completely free

Here’s some of the creative ways your church or small group could participate:

• Beverage Fast – Challenge your congregation to skip all beverages except for water for a designated amount of time. You can participate for a week, a full month, or even as a Lenten fast! Calculate what you would normally spend on drinks for that amount of time and donate it to provide safe water to people around the world.

• Six-Week Small Group Study – This transformational small group study will walk through three people from the bible, starting with Jesus calling Peter out onto the water, as they take steps of faith and will provide actionable steps that participants can take each week as they grow in their faith.Each session includes a powerful 4-5 minute video with testimonies from our Country Program Staff around the world, a focus on a specific passage of scripture, discussion questions, and a challenge that helps your group members take a step of faith each week.

• Walk For Water – Every day millions of women and children in developing countries walk an average of four miles to retrieve water to meet their family’s daily needs. You can engage your church and local community by doing a walk for water! Plan a mile and a half walk from your church or a park to a nearby lake or river, fill up buckets with dirty water and make the return journey. This fun activity is a perfect event to top off your Water Sunday and truly experience what it’s like for people around the world every day.

Take your next step at www.watermissions.org/watersunday